Posts from — November 2010

Incentives encourage workers to adopt positive behaviors or maintain an existing positive behavior that may potentially help the employee stay healthy and live longer. Adopting positive health behavior is fundamentally what wellness is about.

Incentives can be used to raise participation rates, help individuals complete a Health Promotion Program, or help individuals change or adhere to healthy behaviors.

Providing incentives and rewards will send an important message to the staff members that your organization is committed to helping them with bettering their health. It also plays a significant role in arousing individuals to participate.

Tips on how to pick appropriate incentives -

o  Identify through an worker survey what incentives they value.

o  Identify what incentives the business can provide in addition to what the budget will allow.

o  Ensure that every participant who achieves a goal receives some recognition.

o  Avoid offering incentives for the “best” or the “most.”

o  Avoid using food as a reward.

o  Use incentives to promote your Health Promotion Program, through logos and branding.

When developing a extensive Wellness Program, be certain that it consists of a selection of awareness, lifestyle change, supportive environment programs, policies and activities that target risk behaviors, and the needs and interests of the workforce.

It’ll be imperative that you review and revise existing policies governing such areas as tobacco use sections and the staff cafeteria.

Tips on designing a Health Promotion Program -

o  Create activities based on your plan goals addressing the specific needs of your staff members. Focus on those topics that are of greatest interest to your staff members and the greatest needs of your corporation, in that order. Prevent topics with narrow appeal.

o  Keep it simple. Design the Wellness Program so it is easy for the participants to understand and track.

o  Integrate a combination of activities to include awareness, educational, and behavior elements.

o  Pick activities in which every worker can participate.

Suggestions for your Health Promotion Program -

o  Challenges. Activities that focus on practicing a desired behavior that continues for 4-8 weeks and focuses on specific topics (such as exercise, nutrition, or stress management).

o  Learning experiences. This includes seminars, videos, and classes.

o  Behavior changes (such as smoking cessation). You could or may not offer interventions at the workplace. Nonetheless, you should encourage individuals to make lifestyle changes that they want to make even without an external incentive.

o  Education on disease management. for example, support and education groups for diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.

o  Learing new skills. for  instance, CPR and first aid.

o  Preventive screenings like blood pressure, cholesterol, and vision.

Create goals and objectives

Goals are general guidelines that explain what you want to achieve. Goals define strategies or steps to take to attain the identified goal.

A wellness program should have a “destination”. Use the results of your surveys and your wellness committee’s mission statement as guides. Consider these ideas -

o  Focus on making health information and learning resources readily available to staff members

o  Focus on group activities so employees can work together to support and encourage healthier lifestyles

o  Develop a health promotion program that is visible to both employees and to your customers

o  Focus on written policies and guidelines

o  Make sure to set goals for your health promotion program.

Review Guidelines for Writing Goals.

Wellness Program Objectives Should be

Specific – A goal is specific when it provides a description of what’ll be accomplished. It’ll state exactly what the corporation intends to accomplish.

It ought to be written so that it could be easily and obviously communicated. A specific goal will make it easier for those writing objectives and action plans to address the following questions -

o  Who’s to be involved?

o  What’s to be accomplished?

o  Where is it to be done?

o  When’s it to be done?

Measurable – A goal is measurable when it is quantifiable.  To determine when your goal is measurable, ask questions such as – Precisely how much? Precisely how many? How’ll I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable – You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that authorizes you to carry out those steps. Objectives that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable.

Realistic – Realistic, means “do-able.” the goal needs to be realistic for your company and where the company is at the moment.

A goal to take out all the high fat items in the vending machine might not be realistic for your business right now; a better goal would be to substitute some of the chips, candy bars and pies for pretzels, yogurt and dried fruit.

Timely – In conclusion, a goal must have a timeframe –  for next week, in three months, by age 35. It must have a starting and ending point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress may be evaluated.

Limiting the time in which a goal ought to be accomplished assists to focus effort toward its achievement. When you don’t set a time, the commitment is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can start at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action now.

Successful health promotion programs are designed to meet the needs and interests of the staff. Ask staff what they’re interested in, and what needs they have.

Individuals  are more willing to participate and support wellness efforts when they’re involved in the decision-making process. Review the sample employee survey provided below.

Employee Interest Survey â.” can be edited (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/employer_tools/employee_interest_survey.doc)

When developing a recent survey, keep the following hints in mind -

o  Ask mainly closed form questions, particularly when you will be sending the survey to a big number of staff members. Closed form questions provide specific choices and are easy to tabulate.

o  Invite comments, suggestions and recommendations, or ask open-ended questions at the end of the survey. Open-ended items are more challenging to summarize.

o  Include a brief explanatory cover letter with the survey with the signature of the organization president. Be sure to include a statement about confidentiality and anonymity.

o  Ask a group of representative employees to review the survey before it’s distributed. Find out if the questions are going to be understood by employees and won’t be objected to.

o  Include demographic information at the starting, or end of the survey (gender, age, shift, site, department, etc.).

o  Conduct a random drawing for a valued incentive item for all those who returned the survey. This could increase the response rate.

One rule to consider concerning surveys is if you have fewer than 500 staff members, everybody should receive one.  The advantage of everybody receiving a recent survey can be significant. When you have over 500 staff members, a sample of the work population from each department will suffice.

The higher the response, the more accurate and reliable the results. A minimum response of 40% to 50% is considered valuable.

A critical first step in organizing your corporation’s wellness program is the formation of a wellness committee.  The focus of the wellness committee is to plan, promote, and implement the wellness program.

The committee establishes continuity, motivation, and broad ownership of the wellness program as well as provides an excellent automobile for communication.

So who should be on the committee? Consider appointing the following people /departments to your committee -

o  upper-level management within your company

o  Union representatives

o  Human resources  department

o  Employee assistance program

o  Information technology

o  Communications

o  Health and safety department

o  Workers interested in wellness

Building a successful health promotion program requires staff time in addition to money. Some bigger organizations may spend 20 hours per week for three to six months preparing all the steps prior to launching a health promotion program.

Anywhere from 4 to 10 people  meeting monthly equals a wellness committee. A mission statement for the committee ought to be created by the second meeting. This way, everyone knows what the committee is working toward.

Once a wellness program has been established, the committee’s size and meeting schedule may change. Still, no fewer than 4 members should meet at least quarterly so the group â.” and the wellness program â.” doesn’t fade away.

Support from upper-level management is essential to building a successful wellness program! Visible upper-level management support is one of the most critical factors in the success of a workplace Health Promotion Program.

Senior management executives are responsible for making sure that the corporation meets its objectives. They can provide additional assistance by assisting you to link your Health Promotion Program objectives to corporation outcomes, thereby positioning Health Promotion Program as a fundamental part of the corporation.

It is important to develop support and excitement for the wellness program from all levels of the company including senior management, mid-level management, and grass-root staff.

The challenge for any Health Promotion Program coordinator is convincing executive management about the potential value of Health Promotion Program to the corporation and conceptualizing how wellness programs can impact the corporation in a meaningful manner.

The American Journal of Wellness is a great resource to assist you with obtaining convincing information on the advantages of a Wellness Program.

Health Promotion Program support from executive management can come in many different ways -

o  Involvement in the planning process

o  Distribution of funding for the wellness program

o  Support for time given to the wellness program

o  Participation in wellness events

o  Leadership by management, like the distribution of a letter of support for the health promotion program.

o  Download a sample letter requesting senior management support. (http – //www.ibx.com/pdfs/custom/worksite_wellness/employer_tools/sr_mgt_support.doc)

o  Flexibility of staff member schedules to accommodate wellness activities

The first step in developing your wellness/Health Promotion Program is to understand your corporation and how Health Promotion Program will fit into the current structure.

By researching your company’s history with similar wellness programs and eliciting feedback from coworkers, you are able to find the best solution for your organization.

Health Promotion Program –  Research Questions

o  Find out when Wellness Program has been done in the past. If so, what worked and what did not?

o  Was it widely accepted?

o  Was health promotion programming successful? Why or why not?

o  What does your organization hope to gain from starting a Health Promotion Program?

Answers to these questions will help you start the process of building a culture of wellness within your corporation. It’s imperative that you assess the environment before beginning a wellness program.

The costs of healthcare have been rising more than 10% annually for several years. A substantial amount of the money spent in the healthcare system treats expensive diseases and diseases.

o  Approximately 95 percent of the $1.4 trillion that we spend as a nation on health goes to direct medical services, while about 5 percent is allocated to preventing disease and promoting health.

o  Potentially, 50 percent to 70 percent of all illnesses are preventable as they are associated with modifiable health risks.

o  In an effort to optimize employee health, reduce avoidable healthcare utilization and enhance work performance, and in turn lower healthcare costs and improve employee satisfaction and retention, many businesses are developing, or are interested in developing, Wellness Programs for personnel.

The benefits of corporate health promotion are well documented. Greater than 120 research repeatedly show themes such as improvements in health outcomes coupled with high Return On Investment (ROI). Some major findings include the following -

o  Savings of $3.48 in reduced health care costs per dollar invested.

o  Savings of $5.82 in decrease absenteeism costs per dollar invested.

o  ROIs of at least $3 to $8 per dollar invested within five years of wellness program implementation.

o  Lifestyle behavior change programs –  $3 to $6 Return On Investment (ROI) within 2 to 5 years.

o  Self care, decision support health promotion programs –  $2 to $3 Return On Investment within a year.

o  Illness management programs –  $7 to $10 Return On Investment (ROI) within a year.

By offering wellness programs, corporations aren’t only providing an additional service for employees, but they’re also gaining financially. Moreover, the impact of a wellness program goes beyond lowered health care cost and ROI.

A wellness program can affect productivity, absenteeism, morale, recruitment success, turnover, and medical care costs.

* Source –  Rees, C., and Finch, R. (2004). Health Improvement –  A robust guide to designing, beginning and reviewing health promotion programs. National Business Group on Health, 1 (1), 1-7.

As reported by the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness is the science and art of assisting individuals  change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health.

Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change may be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and develop environments that support good health practices.

Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Wellness Program –  Action Steps

The process of building a Wellness Program involves -

o  Identifying the current health status of your personnel

o  Determiningthe appropriate health promotion programs and interventions to offer

o  Advertising and beginning the health promotion programs

o  Building in motivational incentives

o  Evaluating the impact

o  Revising health promotion programs based on analysis outcomes

It may even include developing policies and procedures that support staff member participation in wellness activities at your worksite (like flextime).

Steps to Beginning a Health Promotion Program

o  Conduct an organizational assessment

o  Get senior level management support

o  Establish a wellness committee

o  Get staff member input

o  Create objectives and objectives

o  Design and implement health promotion program activities

o  Choose incentives

o  Assess outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to enhance the nation’s health is through extensive Health Promotion Programs.

As reported by the USA Department of Health and Human Services, these health promotion programs might help employees live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs.

In fact, one of the goals of Healthful Individuals  2010, a set of health goals for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to raise the proportion of staff members that participate in a extensive Health Promotion Program at their worksite to 75 percent.

5 Ways to Assess and Improve Your Employees’ Health

Emotional health is a state of wellness that comes from understanding and acknowledging our emotions and finding appropriate ways to express them.

As personnel, we often bring emotional problems from our childhood or current family life into the workplace because we have not dealt with them effectively outside of work.

This can seriously damage worksite relationships and lead to poor performance and negative feelings all around.

Many tools and techniques exist for helping us improve our emotional health. Some of the most common are given below, with real-life case histories illustrating their use.

If an unpleasant mood or feeling persists over a length of time, don’t hesitate to seek out a licensed expert. Health promotion programs generally have expert support already in place as part of their services.

1. Health Coaching -

One of the hallmarks of emotional health is the willingness to ask for help when we need it.

Confidential professional help, the coaching and counseling provided by employee assistance or health promotion programs, can provide an external source of strength and insight for “working out” emotionally-based problems instead of “working them in” to your job.

2. Self-help Groups -

Self-help groups are designed to aid people  in emotional situations in which they feel alone.  The purpose of these groups is twofold –  to allow people  to safely feel and express their emotions, and to help break their isolation at work and/or in society at large and reintegrate them into society with the support of a colleague group.

The classic self-help group is Alcoholics Anonymous, but thanks to technology, it’s possible to connect with others that have common health challenges, no matter how unique the situation.

People  are taking benefit of tele-conference groups and social web sites, such as sparkindividuals .com and revolutionhealth.com. Health promotion programs often have such groups available through web-based or telephone support. Progressive employee wellness provider

Exan Wellness, for example, offers teleconference cell groups and moderated wellness forums for interacting with others in a supportive, confidential and unknown environment.

People  with shared challenges get together and discuss the emotional challenges they are facing at work or in other areas of their lives and work through change together.

3. Journaling –  Journaling is often recommended by counsellors as a way to help identify and process emotions. People  record their emotions in writing as they experience them, in no matter what form they wish.

By helping the writer gain greater emotional clarity, journaling can help in making more emotionally informed decisions. In much the same way, letter writing enables individuals  to identify and process the emotions they feel about others.

The letter doesn’t have to be sent or its contents shared –  it simply provides a place for the expression of feelings.

An 18-year-old “army brat,” Brent has always done well at school, academically and athletically. But in his last year of high school, something seems to have happened to him. He’s lost all interest in school, becoming moody and withdrawn.

Brent describes to his guidance counselor all the times he had to move when he was growing up. Each move wrenched him from his friends and forced him to play the role of the “new kid on the block.”

The counselor suggests that Brent write letters to the friends he’s missed over the years telling them how he felt. In conclusion, he’s a chance to say a proper goodbye.

4. Assess Your Emotional Health – Companies that seek to boost employees’ interpersonal skills, or emotional intelligence in the workplace are more successful, according to ground-breaking journalist Daniel Goleman.

And emotional intelligence is the buzzword in workplaces these days. Some health promotion programs have information about emotional intelligence, or emotional health assessments. Seek out more information about emotional intelligence for better corporate health promotion.

5. Friendships/Support Systems –  Friendships allow people  to feel supported in their emotional journeys.  At the same time, they give people  an opportunity to develop their empathetic skills.

These skills are also important for worksite health. When we’re empathic with fellow staff members, we help them resolve negative or unhealthy emotions. New friendships are made through hobbies, classes, clubs, or even through online groups.

Many individuals  are locating emotional satisfaction by connecting or re-connecting with friends through Facebook and other social websites.

Sometimes workplace stress that is not dealt with in a healthy manner could be brought home. A 36-year-old mother of three, Sarah, wants to be a good wife, a good mother, and a success at her job.

One day, drained after a long day at work, she shouted at her rambunctious children and threatened to hit her youngest son. Her behavior horrified her.  To make matters worse, she believes she’s a failure at her job as well as at motherhood. She watches with jealousy as younger colleagues advance much more rapidly up the corporate ladder despite having less experience than she has.

On the advice of a counselor, she decides to take time out for herself and take a course for amateur painters. It does not take long before she strikes up a friendship with a single mom in the class.

She once led a life very similar to Sarah’s before managing to achieve a better balance between work and family. Her new friend becomes a much-needed sounding board for Sarah and offers her perspectives on her life that she hadn’t considered before.